IntroductionWith
a slim footprint, sleek design and a dynamically powerful sound the
B&W 604 tower loudspeakers fit right into any number of modern
systems and do equally as well in just about any home decor. Standing
40 inches tall with a 3-way compliment including a B&W metal dome
tweeter, one bright yellow colored B&W Kevlar 7 inch mid-range and
two 7 inch Cobex drivers, these B&Ws have the ability to put out
some serious musical energy while maintaining a razor sharp image. The
604s are capable of an imaging you would expect from a high end
loudspeaker costing many thousands of dollars.

B&Ws
have not historically been known for their high efficiency ratings,
however these 90 dB 604s can rock and roll on a 50 watt-per-channel
Rotel integrated amp. Additionally, the 604s are not very placement
critical. In setup we were forced to place them closer to a corner than
we would have liked but with the front firing, tuned ports, the 604s
never got too boomy or mushy in the bass. While careful angling was
necessary to achieve convincing imaging, overall the 604s were a snap
to get to sound great. Anyone could do it.

The Sound.
Bass is plentiful on the 604s. On After 7's cover
of Hall & Oates "Sarah's Smile" (Virgin) the bass response was deep
and sustained. On Prince's "7" (Warner Bros.) the bass continued to be
deep, sounding almost as if there was a sub in the system, yet there
never was. Bass response on the 604s is reported by B&W to go as
low as 34 Hz @ -6 dB.

As
an accessory to the 604s, B&W provides curious, little foam port
tuning devices which help to control the 604s' low end output. We chose
the more porous of the two `plugs' in our listening room in that it
helped combat the fact that we had the speakers closer to a back wall
then we would have liked.

On Sarah McLachlan's "Mary"
from The Freedom Sessions EP (Arista) the mids were clear and resolute.
The guitar, positioned to Sarah's right on stage, was always detailed
and well mixed with the piano and her vocals. The listening experience
on this cut was what you would expect from a high dollar, high end
system, however we were working with under $3000 in a B&W, Rotel
and Straight Wire setup.

Where less expensive systems usually fall apart are on more complex
musical arrangements so we decided to play a little big band. On "New
York, New York," from Sinatra's 80th birthday record, the soundstage
featured Frank focused up front while spreading the wide, dynamic band
arrangement in a well-balanced musical equation.

With the success we had with Sinatra, we figured we would try our luck
with these 604s and test their ability to resolve the most complicated
composition we had; Stravinsky's "L'Oiseau de feu" conducted by Pierre
Boulez of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Deutsche Gramophone.
Normally, we reserve this cut to test the resolution of a system of the
highest caliber i.e. The Cello Reference System or Wilson Grand SLAMMs,
however as we said, we were intrigued and wanted to push the envelope .
. . all right, so bigger speakers with more drivers and thousands of
watts of class A power can resolve more detail and provide
significantly more dynamics for his kind of orchestral music, but the
604s definitely can hold their own with Stravinsky. You could hear the
end of the 604s' bass response during the timpani crashes however, the
imaging mostly held together. In the cacophony of horns, strings and
percussion the 604s survived nicely and provided a musically engaging
experience that didn't smear or distort as other $1600 speakers do
under this kind of musical abuse.

The major concern I had for the 604s was in the high end. I have often
found B&W speakers to be a bright speaker in the higher frequencies
which we knew this coming into the review. But, with that said, there
were moments when the 604s were a bit strident in the highs where a
competing speaker (like an NHT or a Sonus Faber) is not. Though, to the
604s credit, our listening room was not heavily treated and had
hardwood floors which undoubtedly made the sound brighter.

Conclusion
This last critique should not exclude the 604s from you audition
schedule, just know ahead of time that if anything they err on the
bright side. You must also consider that while other $1600 loudspeakers
may image better or are more smooth in the high end, very few of them
can produce any real low frequencies. This is a trade off we're not
normally willing to make, thus we recommend the B&W 604 loudspeaker
system. If you listen exclusively to music or have film playback
capabilities in your system you need to audition the 604s if they fit
your budget. They work nicely into a small room, they can be tuned to
elicit the best bass performance, they are quite dynamic and can image
on complicated tracks. Overall, B&W's 604s are a winner!